Sheet metal storage battery box and method of making same



H. D. G EYER July 13, 1937.

SHEET METAL STORAGE BATTERY BOX AND METHOD OE MAKING SAME Filed Aug. 4,1954 BY Wow INVENTOR Harvg/ LZ 562/51 H o ATTOR N EY v Patented July 13,1937 PATENT OFFICE SHEET METAL STORAGE BATTERY BOX AND METHOD OF MAKINGSAME Harvey D. GeyenDayton, Ohio, assignor to General MotorsCorporation, Detroit, Mich., a, corporation of Delaware ApplicationAugust 4, 1934, Serial No. 738,426

7 Claims.

This invention relates to a method of making storage battery containersand the resulting product of this method.

An object of this invention is to provide a method of folding up a fiatmetal sheet to form a multi-cell storage battery container havingupstanding side and partition walls which are integral'with the bottomwalls of the cells.

The fiat metal sheet may be first covered with a coating of resilientinsulating material (such as soft rubber) and then folded upaccording tothis-invention to provide a multi-cell container which has a completeinsulating inner lining resulting from said coating. Thus the insulatinglining may be readily applied by any well known or convenient method ina more simple and economical manner while the metal sheet is in flat orsubstantially fiat form. Obviously if the multicell metal container befirst formed the difliculties of subsequently properly applying theinner insulating lining will be greatly increased particularly if it isnecessary to mold said lining to the metal walls of the container. Bythis invention a resilient coating of soft rubber, or any other suitableresilient insulating material, may be readily and efficiently vulcanizedor cured directly upon and bonded to the metal sheet while in the flat.Preferably but not necessarily both sides of the flat metal sheet are socoated, so that the folded container will have a complete insulatinglining on both its interior and exterior surfaces.

Hence a general object of the invention is to provide an improved formof sheet metal battery container which is fully protected from the acidused in the battery, which is leak-proof, and which can be made in asimple and economical manner.

Further objects and advantages of the present description, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawing, wherein a preferred embodimentofthe' present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawing:

Fig. l is a plan view of a three-cell storage battery container madeaccording to this invention. 1

Fig. 2 is an end elevation of the container.

Fig. 3 is a section on line 33 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4- is a perspective view of the partially formed container of Fig.l, and shows the structure prior to the step of folding the eightoutwardly projecting triangular metal folds to lie adjacent the cellwalls to provide a neat boxlike structure.

invention will be apparent from the following Fig. 5 is a plan view ofthe rubber covered flat sheet metal blank prior to the folding thereof.The dotted lines designate the various bend lines on the sheet.

Fig. 6 is a section on line 6-6 of Fig. 5 and shows a soft rubbercoating vulcanized to both sides of the flat metal sheet.

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout theseveral views.

The flat sheet metal blank I 0, shown in Fig. 5, first has theinsulating resilient coating ll applied thereto, preferably on bothsides thereof as shown. Preferably this coating is of soft resilientrubber which is vulcanized directly upon the metal sheet Ill and thusstrongly surface bonded thereto. The rubber-covered sheet Ill is thenfolded up by means of suitable dies along the various bending linesshown in Fig. 5. The three areas l, l and i" become the bottoms of, thethree cells; while the areas 2, 2 become the two upstanding larger sidesof the end cell A; areas 2', 2' become the two upstanding larger sidesof the central cell B; and areas 2", 2" become the two upstanding largersides of the end cell C. Part of areas 3, 3 become the two upstandingsmaller side walls of cell A; the areas 3', 3' become the two upstandingsmaller side walls of cell B; and part of areas 3", 3" become the twoupstanding smaller side walls of cell 0. Lines 4 designate the top edgesof the two double thickness partition walls and extend completely acrossthe blank ill, as clearly shown in Fig. 4.

,Now when these upstanding side walls are folded to a vertical positionthe excess metal areas at each of the four corners of each cell isfolded outwardly along the diagonal'lines 5, 6, l and 8, thereby formingeight outwardly projecting trifangular shaped metal folds l2 and i3 asclearly illustrated in Fig. l. These triangular folds I2 and itobviously permit the side walls of each cell to be brought perpendicularto the bottom wall thereof without cutting away any of the metal area ofthe blank Ml. It will also be noted that the structure shown in Fig. 4forms three individual cells A, B and C having no intercommunicationwith each other, and each of which will not leak externally even thoughthere has been no welding or other sealing of any seams. This is becauseall of the folds extend to the top edge of the cells, or in other words,thereare no open joints below the top edge of the con- A, B and C toprovide a more compact and neat appearing structure and at the same timeto materially increase the strength of the container. These projectionsI2 and I3 may be so folded over to lie adjacent the main walls in anydesired arrangement or manner of folding. However preferably the endprojections |2 are first folded over to overlap each other and lieclosely adjacent the ends 2 and 2" of the container as shown in Fig. 1,and thereafter the adjacent two triangular projections l3 are foldedaround over the folded projections I! at each opposed end of thecontainer. In some cases, dependent on the relative dimensions of thecontainer cells, the projections l3 are sufliciently long to be made tooverlap when folded around the ends of. the container, as shown at IS inFig. 1. In such cases, if desired, these overlapping ends I5 may bespaced slightly from the ends of the end walls of the container toprovide convenient handles by means of which the storage battery may belifted and moved around.

In all folding 'of the rubber-covered metal sheet the resilient rubbercovering II will easily distort at the bending lines and thusaccommodate such folding without -breaking or cracking or tearing loosefrom its bonded relation to the metal sheet at these lines of bending.In other words, the continuity of the insulating coating II will not bedestroyed by any such folding as described above, and hence the finishedbattery container will have a complete insulating flexible liningthroughout each cell. If desired, this insulating rubber' lining may beused only as an interior lining for the container and the outer surfacesof the metal container covered with any suitable acid-resisting coatingafter the container is completely formed as described. Of course thefundamental teachings of this invention can be applied to themaking of asingle cell container, and also to a multi-cell container having otherthan three cells.

Preferably soft steel sheet is used for the blank ID. The steel sheetmay be coated with brass, copper chloride, or a cement which will'insurea firm bond of the rubber coating II to the metal. The rubber coatingmay be first applied to the metal sheet by calendering uncured rubberthereon so as .to completely cover both sides and all edges of the metalsheet, and then the rubber is vulcanized in place so as to provide astrong vulcanized bond to the metal sheet. This rubber covered sheet,illustrated in Fig. '6, is then folded up as described above in a pressby means of a series of forming dies in a manner which will now be clearto those skilled in this art.

While the embodiment of the present invention as herein disclosed,constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other formsmight be adopted, all coming within the scope of the claims whichfollow.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. The method of making a storage battery container, comprising:covering a flat metal sheet with a coating of resilient non-conductingmaterial, then folding said coated sheet to form a seamless multi-cellstructure having upstanding side walls and partition walls and outwardlyprojecting triangular metal folds at each corner of the formed cells,then bending said projecting triangular metal folds to lie adjacent themain cell walls to form a box-like structure.

2. The method of making a storage battery container, comprising:covering a fiat metal sheet with a coating of resilient non-conductingmaterial, then folding said coated sheet along various lines to providea. multi-cell structure having upstanding double thickness partitionwalls and single thickness outer side walls by forming outwardlyprojecting triangular metal folds at each vertical corner of the cells,then bending said projecting triangular folds to lie adjacent the sidewalls to form a box-like structure.

3. The method of making a storage battery container, comprising:covering a fiat metal sheet with a coating of resilient non-conductingmaterial, then folding said coated sheet to form a multi-cell structurehaving outwardly projecting triangular folds at each vertical cornerwith the resilient coating providing an interior lining for the cells,then bending the projecting triangular folds at some of the verticalcorners of the cells to lie adjacent the side walls of the container.

4. A storage battery container having a plurality of water-retainingcell compartments, said plurality of compartments having sheet metalside walls and bottom walls all folded from a single piece of sheetmetal.

5. A multicell storage battery container folded up from an integral fiatmetal sheet, the partition walls separating the individual cells beingformed of a double thickness of the metal sheet folded at the top edgeof said partition walls.

6. A storage battery container having three water-retaining cellcompartments, said three compartments having integral folded sheet metalside walls and bottom wall, and external triangular metal folds bentaround the end walls of the two end compartments to reinforce andstrengthen the folded metal structure.

7. A multi-celi storage battery container folded up from a single metalsheet by forming outwardly extending triangular metal folds at thevertical corners of each cell, said exterior triangular metal foldsbeing bent to lie adjacent but exterior to the main cell walls toprovide a box-like folded structure.

HARVEY D. GEYER

